Some further info on strumming (mostly because I am still having a prob with consistent muting)...

I am using just my fingers. What are you using, David?

As far as up and down strokes at tempo, I can do this with no prob during the entire song (as long as I don't try to sing, as I still don't have that whole sing-with-offbeat-strumming thing down yet), but not with muting.

What I am trying to do is down strums with ring and middle, up strums with my thumb. To mute, I am bringing my hand down onto the strings. Sometimes I hit too hard and get that sound of the strings slapping on the frets, and sometimes I just miss getting it right at all, and as you go faster it is harder to keep in tempo (so, my version of muting works fine at slower tempi).

Anyway, given my limitations, I have only been practicing the up and down strokes while listening to the song... no muting. I would really like to get some muting techniques down, but this is proving to be one of those things that appear at present to be impossible for me (sorta like clean barre chords). Any help or advice would be great. Especially for you beginners who have been in my same boat and how you overcame this issue.

To mute your strum, try just laying the fleshy part of your strumming hand (the bit between the pinky and the wrist) on the strings as you are strumming. Various pressures and placement give some different sounds. Take a look at the pictures and video at cyberfret:

It sounds more difficult than it really is. Once you get used to muting you'll find that you use it a lot. It helps give a song a bit more of a percussive sound and it makes things sound a little more interesting.

Olive

"My ex-boyfriend can't tell me I've sold out, because he's in a cult, and he's not allowed to talk to me." --Dar Williams

Yes, I've been doing the strum muting as Olive suggests, it sounded a bit hopeless at first, but with consistent practise it sounds ok now, though I also have trouble putting them all in if I'm picking up speed. Thanks for the link Olive.

(zc, yes I got a gem at a reasonable price, apparently a model of guitar can vary in sound quality within that model, you can be lucky sometimes, cheers)

Whoo Hooo!!!! I got it. Been rocking away at it for about ten minutes and my hands hurt, but I got it. Tonight it can go up against the family test.

I switched to a pick (a light one, because my heavier ones were too harsh for my ear... I have four regular size picks in various thicknesses, from light to heavy, that I play around with and a heavy mini-pick that I have gotten used to for practicing my flatpicking, since I mostly try to fingerpick). And I used the fleshy part of the hand. Once I got the movements down, it became really easy to rock out. And that is muting on the upstroke which is supposed to be the hardest. Cool!

Been screwing around with muting in some other patterns... God! Is this fun!!

And that's the whole point. Being able to do this will give you a chance to vary your strumming patterns even more.

By the way, Mark (and sorry I didn't get to answer your question before now), I use a medium pick on the MP3. My muting is pretty much done with the "edge" of my hand (if you lay your hand at a right angle on a flat surface, it's the part that's in direct contact with the surface - I guess you could call it the "side" - boy are these things difficult to discuss sometimes or what? ;) ).

"Once you have a couple of patterns that you like and can do without thinking, you'll find yourself playing â€œmix and match,â€ throwing â€œE minor pattern 1â€ with â€œF#m13 pattern 4â€ and what have you. It can become a lot of fun as well as a challenge to see what you can come up with next."

Question:
Must be me, but I don't see the 3 other F#m13 patterns. All the F#m13 patterns look the same to me. I do see the 3 different patterns for Em. What am I missing with the F#m13???

I originally skipped a lot of this but got the basic chords down but not the rhythm - that was 6 months ago! Now I found it incredibly easy to pick up the strumming pattern but one thing that is still bugging me is the "muting" effect.

Do you strum the chord THEN quickly mute the strings by placing your palm or whatever over the strings (this seems more like what is in davids sound bites and in fact after trying it out some more I think im nailing it ) or play them in a "click" fashion i.e. strum whilst holding your palm across the strings? I can only achieve this by muting the strings at the frets with my little finger or something.... no good with 4 finger chords!

Do you strum the chord THEN quickly mute the strings by placing your palm or whatever over the strings (this seems more like what is in davids sound bites and in fact after trying it out some more I think im nailing it ) or play them in a "click" fashion i.e. strum whilst holding your palm across the strings? Â I can only achieve this by muting the strings at the frets with my little finger or something.... no good with 4 finger chords!
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In the case of Horse With No Name it's an upstroke then mute the sound in place of playing a downstroke. You don't have to actually strike the strings while you are muting to get the intended effect. I strummed thru the song a few times and I found that I tend to keep my down-up-down-up motion no matter if I'm actually striking the strings or not. So for the F#m chord, when I mute the strings I actually go through the motion of a downstroke. I hope that made sense. This stuff is hard to explain sometimes... ::)
In any case, the video and pictures on cyberfret do a good job of showing what part of the hand to use and the various sounds you can get using palm muting.

"My ex-boyfriend can't tell me I've sold out, because he's in a cult, and he's not allowed to talk to me." --Dar Williams